James Bond's Abandoned 'SPECTRE' Mission from 1984

James Bond's Abandoned 'SPECTRE' Mission from 1984

Article excerpt

As Screen prepares to celebrate its 40th birthday, we have been busy trawling through the magazine's archives in search of landmark moments from our history.

This full-page ad from 1984, purchased by film producer Kevin McClory of Paradise Film Productions, reveals the company's intentions to create a series of James Bond films - beginning with SPECTRE - stating that an important announcement is forthcoming.

Evidently, the film never came to fruition, and the project is now consigned to Bond history.

In 1965, Kevin McClory had helped develop the story for the third entry in the Bond franchise, Thunderball, which introduced arch villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld as the figurehead of evil organization SPECTRE.

Following the film, a dispute arose over who owned the rights to those elements of the story, with a court eventually ruling after years of litigation that McClory was allowed to produce his own James Bond films. …

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